Connecticut Woman Threatens Newtown Style Shooting On Facebook

A Connecticut woman who threatened a “Newtown style” shooting on Facebook has been arrested after images of her brandishing a gun were captured and reported to police.

The woman who threatened a Newtown inspired massacre in Connecticut is 19-year-old Amanda Bowden, and while idle threats are taken seriously particularly in the wake of such a tragedy, the comments also worried investigators due to their alleged detail in intent and planning.

The Hartford Courant, which covered the original Newtown shooting perhaps the most intensively, reports that Bowden was the subject of an investigation after she made some concerning statements not only about a potential community college shooting, but also after she allegedly extensively praised shooter Adam Lanza following the horrific massacre.

The paper cites conversations about the alleged planned Newtown style shooting between February 6 and February 14, explaining:

“In an unrecorded conversation with the undercover agent, Bowden allegedly discussed the shooting at Sandy Hook, praising shooter Adam Lanza and stating a desire to one-up him, the complaint states… During these conversations, Bowden claimed to have both firearms and two napalm-based bombs at her house, according to the complaint.”

Bowden was not a student at Gateway Community College in New Haven, the institution at which she’d threatened the Newtown style shooting. Investigators say that none of the items she purported to possess to use in the threatened massacre were found during a search of her home, and the 19-year-old has been arrested and charged with, according to the Courant, “one count of false information and hoaxes, and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.”

US Attorney David B. Fein commented on the Newtown style threat, saying:

“As alleged, this defendant made a series of threats that described in great detail her intention to carry out a suicidal mass murder at a community college in New Haven… All threats of this nature will be viewed as serious by this office and prosecuted to the full extent of federal law. I commend the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the New Haven and East Haven Police Departments for their swift investigation of this matter.”

An FBI spokesman said in a statement on the Newtown-style threats that “making of any threat will not and can not be tolerated,” adding that “there will be consequences.”